I'm a landlord responsible for 3 rental homes and their maintenance. I'm also mechanically and electrically schooled. So when my Furnace Igniter died Oct 11th leaving me in the mild cold, and one of my rental properties washing machine's died, I quickly knew what parts to order.
Searching the Internet I found APWagner with retail stores across Canada and the United States. They claim a inventory of over 4 Million Appliance Parts and Accessories for major Brands. The size and inventory of the business looked impressive! The prices were (mostly) good and I could save a few hundred dollars over buying the same parts locally.
My Order:
1 Universal Hot Surface Furnace Igniter SIG1000 $51.80
1 Washer Water Level Pressure Switch $51.99
1 Biscuit-colored Washer Control Knob by Whirlpool $27.84
Total: $158.90 (sales Tax and shipping)
I placed my Order Oct 12 2008 and it was billed to my credit card Oct14 by Alliance Parts for $158.90.
Over a week later it was getting very Cold in my house, snowing outside, so seeing my order hadn't shipped I messaged the company through their on line service. I needed to know if receiving the furnace igniter was going to be much longer or if I should buy one locally for $305 to stay warm. I NEVER received a reply from APWagner! yup, I was left in the Cold!
Such a large Internet retailer that can not reply to emails on an active Order in 24 or 48 business day hours is ridiculous! Worse yet, I've never received a replay at all. Completely ignored after my money was taken.
Last week I called APWagner to inquire on my order status. I was told they had been waiting on the Furnace ignitor and the Control knob, but the Furnace ingitor had just come in. Looking at their website I spotted the same control knob I had ordered of a different color in stock. I asked for the different colored knob to be substituted for the one on back order, thus they could now ship. The person on the phone could not figure out how to change the part numbers but said he'd figure it out and get my order out to me. I never received my Order, It was never shipped!
In the meantime, I've spent an extra $305 dollars on a duplicate part that should have been here over two weeks ago and another $143 in extra energy costs for a space heater and for the tenets washing and drying small loads of laundry. (the washer will spill over on med or large loads) In the long run I've spent more money then if I had just bought the parts locally, they had everything but the control knob in stock. (the control knob is not a big issue, it's only for cosmetics as I'm using an old stereo volume knob for now, it's sad my order was never shipped due to some knob!)
Bottom Line: APWagner sucks for customer service and will leave you in the cold!
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Pros: Prices are good, Good selection of parts, lots of on line How To's, Lots of retail store across north America.
Cons:
-They do not reply to emails (Three sent in 30 days, (PS, it's not in my spam box, I'm a computer geek so don't blame the customer's spam filters)
-They do not ship until all parts ordered are received even tho they boast of next day & 24 hours shipping of in stock parts.
-In a phone call inquiring where my order was, the attendant could not figure out how to change a part number to another one that was currently in stock, of equal value, but of different color.
APWagner's Shipping policy
inventory listed as..
- Ships Today: we have the part in stock and it will ship today
- Ships Tomorrow: we have the part in stock and it will ship tomorrow
- Ships Monday: we have the part in stock and it will ship on Monday
- Available: The part is available from the product manufacturer. We will place an order for your part within one business day. Most functional parts are shipped to us with 2 business days and we typically ship them out within one day of receipt.
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